In June 2020, Sheila Hamp took over as the Detroit Lions’ major owner. Her initial goal was to start figuring out why the organization had never won and to come up with ways to improve the situation of a struggling NFL team.
When Hamp made the decision to succeed her mother, Martha Firestone Ford, she revealed who she phoned first in an extensive, three-part feature article with the Detroit Free Press.
“My first call was to a pretty dear buddy of mine, with whom I went to college,” Hamp disclosed. Sandy Cutler.
For many years, he was the CEO of Eaton Corp.
We had a close friendship. His leadership approach has always been admirable to me. Cutler and Hamp were both students at Yale, an Ivy League university. She questioned him about how he would handle the daunting task she was facing.
Cutler retired as the CEO of Eaton Corp., a $20.9 billion industrial manufacturer, and was a leader Hamp developed a significant amount of respect for.
Hamp clarified, “Well, defining your noble cause is the first thing you need to accomplish,” he added. “Once you’ve done that, identify a few important people who buy into it, and then the rest should fall into place,” Cutler added.
Giving the Lions supporters and the city of Detroit a football team they could finally be proud of became Hamp’s mission.
With the help of Cutler’s coaching, Hamp was able to turn all of the early difficulties she encountered—such as Matthew Stafford’s declaration that he wanted to be traded—into opportunities and strive to shift her perspective so that she could find answers anytime an unexpected or difficult situation arose.
